A traveler wearing a face mask sits in a quiet London Underground train car in London on March 25, 2020. (File photo by AFP)

The coronavirus pandemic may lead to a drastic change in Iran’s economic position in the world given that many countries are now pressing the United States to ease its illegal and unilateral sanctions on the country to help it fight the virus, says a major Iranian businessman.

Majid Reza Hariri, who chairs the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, said on Wednesday that the spread of coronavirus around the world had created massive problems for many countries including Iran.

However, Hariri said that the disease could finally change the way the global economy is working and allow Iran return to normal international economic exchanges.

“We are witnessing that many countries are taking a stance against the oppressive American sanctions against Iran,” he told the ILNA news agency, adding, “This could cause a change in the equations.”

The businessman said that Iran could use the outbreak of coronavirus to make a stronger case against the US sanctions especially at a time when global markets have already crashed as a result of the pandemic and also because of a major fall in the oil prices which came after major producers Russia and Saudi Arabia disagreed on a new supply cut.

“This coronavirus and what it has caused could lead us to a place where we could make a use of it,” said Hariri.

Governments around the world have acknowledged that US sanctions have undermined Iran’s ability to respond to the coronavirus outbreak as the country faces an increasing number of hurdles while trying to access protective gear and vital medical equipment.

Washington, which imposed its sanctions in November 2018 after pulling out of an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program, has yet to bow to the pressure to relax the bans.

On the future of Iran-China economic ties, Hariri said that the spread of coronavirus in the two countries added a human dimension to the relations, a parameter he said was mostly absent from government-to-government exchanges in the past.

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